Christian Braunlich over at the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy — perhaps the only active Virginia centered conservative think tank — brings into stark relief the consequences of ending DACA should Congress fail to act in the pages of the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
In Virginia alone, there are about 12,000 “Dreamers.” Ninety-five percent of them are either working or in school, and six percent have started their own businesses that employ Virginians. They pay $34.7 million a year in state and local taxes and if they are deported, the Commonwealth’s GDP cost will be more than $676 million per year.
Virginia taxpayers have underwritten their K-12 education for the past nine years at an average cost of $10,000 per child per year. Deporting them now — without their having willfully committed any crime — would deport Virginia’s investment in their education and the economic returns we can expect. To most, that makes no sense.
President Trump thus far has made it quite clear that he (and a good many other people) understand this.
Ending the lawless executive order from the Obama era was going to be a tough call when 700,000 effective hostages were held in limbo. Fixing the problem is a legislative task — and should have been from the start.
The clock is already ticking.
